PORT TOWNSEND — Northwind Arts Center will open two shows this Saturday.
The art center at 701 Water St., will host a two-week pop-up show at the exhibit gallery as well as a six-week photography show at the artist showcase gallery.
The two-week show, “Through the Wall,” celebrates two years of an arts education program in partnership with the Boiler Room, which shares an adjoining wall with the center on Water Street.
The two have fostered a collaborative relationship to provide visual art instruction through compensated artists.
Art by the program participants and the instructors will be displayed side-by side. Artist instructors include: Ryland All, Annalisa Barelli, Mike Biskup, Melissa Bixby, Max Grover, Karen Hackenberg, Margie McDonald, Nhatt Nichols, Gary Nisbet, Natalie Oswald, Julie Read and Annette Ruzicka.
Grover, Hackenberg, McDonald and Nisbet appear courtesy of Simon Mace Gallery.
The show will be on display through Jan. 29.
The six-week exhibit, “I Have a Name: Identity and Belonging in Small-Town America,” will display work by photographer Raymond L. Ketcham through Feb. 26.
Throughout the course of several years, Ketcham spent time at the Boiler Room, a volunteer-operated coffeehouse and social services hub dedicated to providing a safe space for the growth and improvement of individuals in Port Townsend.
He got to know the men and women who gather and work there and made a series of portraits and documentary images.
“Each of his photographs captures its subject at an essential moment of their journey to know themselves,” said Michael D’Alessandro, executive director of the center.
“In the large-scale portraits, each person looks directly at the camera, wide-eyed and vulnerable, permitting us to see them exactly as they are, but it is their generous look back at us that invites us to truly know them.”
The show includes 60 photographs and a photography book with images from the show and essays from Scottish photographer and teacher John MacPherson, as well as writer, musician and Boiler Room member Jordan Hyman.
The photography show also will be featured during the February Gallery Walk in Port Townsend.
